Taqueria Los Charros
Mountain View, CA
| Overall Score based on 27 reviews |
8.8 highly recommended |
Editorial Reviews (3)
Chris's Score: 8.5 / 10 full review...
After all the good reviews of Los Charros, i had to give them a try. Sure enough, these are some excellent burritos.
Mark's Score: 8 / 10 full review...
My partner and I got up the courage to make a bold move, after which we felt the need to celebrate. I told him there was a great taqueria I had been eager to try out, and he was all for it. In this spirit we went to Mountain View to experience the best ... which, some legends say, is a super carnitas from Los Charros.
Dan's Score: 10 / 10 full review...
Thinking about Los Charros gives me the same feelings that most people get when they see old Saturday Evening Post covers, except that in my fantasies the ice-skating children are holding burritos. This is one of my favorite taquerias in the world; it's within walking distance of my parents' house, and I've eaten more Charros burritos over the last ten years than any other flavor.
User Reviews (24)
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Showing 5-24 of 24 (most recent reviews shown first) ‹ Older
Score: 9 / 10 Reviewed by: massd (Los Gatos, CA)
I've eaten here several times in the past few years in my return to the South Lame. It is a beacon of hope to those who are stuck south of San Francisco. I ate lunch here Tuesday and had the super carnitas, no sour cream. As other reviewers have raved, there is a nice middle ground between wet and dry and the grilled tortilla is the icing on the cake. I know the moisture content is just right when the last couple of bites include a slightly soggy tortilla.
I have eaten at a few other Mountain View taquerias but I feel that Los Charros continues to deliver the best, most consistent experience. It's also in a nice part of the area and doesn't charge an arm and a leg. The very nice seating section is not to be overlooked (coming from a guy whose favorite is Cancun at 6th/Market in SF).
Score: 10 / 10 Reviewed by: jfatty
Perfect! I've been going to Charros for almost ten years and it always lives up to my expectations. I've changed my orders over the years from carnitas to carne asada, and curently get the super wet carne asada, it is amazing. It's so big you never think you will finish it, but it so good you can't leave any on the plate. They roll the burritos with perfection, every bite gives you a small taste of each ingredient.
Score: 9.5 / 10 Reviewed by: mcattaneo23
WOW!!! By far the best carnitas I've had in the Bay Area. Beautifully crisp and yed tender and full of flavor and fat. The integration was also quite nice, leading to nice even bites throughout the burrito, with no real cold spots. I did find the salsas a bit disappointing however. The ranchero was quite good with nice acid balance, while the pico de gallo was relatively flavorless. I also tried an al pastor taco which was delicious as well. Nicely seasoned and full of flavor it was a joy to eat.
Score: 7.5 / 10 Reviewed by: Gobbler
Today was my first time at this place. The interior is nice enough and was about half full of customers. I had an Al Pastor Super burrito. The tortilla had a nice texture and held the burrito together well. The mix of flavors was good although I prefer a more spicy mixture. There was little cilantro flavor which is a slight drawback. It's the best burrito I've had since I moved here from San Mateo county. I might return but intend on trying some other highly rated taquerias first. I'd give it a higher rating but it didn't match up with the best burritos I've had elsewhere.
Score: 10 / 10 Reviewed by: pocketsbuttons
As a vegetarian, a good burrito is more difficult to come by. Rather than rest on the laurels of carne asada, a vegetarian burrito is solely about the freshness and distribution of its ingredients. The Los Charros burrito takes the prize for being the best vegetarian burrito out there.
When you walk into Los Charros, you immediately get a really good feeling. The staff are all cheery and the place is really friendly. But I guess this review should be burrito-focused.
The burritos are an incredible value for money. A vegetarian burrito costs $4.50, and it's filling enough to serve as both lunch and dinner. Meals are served with wonderful hot, fresh tortilla chips and the best salsas around.
I eat here every few days when I'm home from college, and I've never had a bad experience or a bad burrito. One visit is enough to make you a fan for life.
Score: 10 / 10 Reviewed by: flea607
Drove all the way down from Berkeley for the fabled carnitas super burrito. Thank you, Burritophile. Thank you.
Teriffic Carnitas. Fresh, amazing guacamole. Perfect integration. GREAT pico de gallo. Smoky, chewy, moist, delicious, crispy. A Revelation.
I will never forget my first and I will always be looking forward to my next Taqueria Los Charros burrito.
Score: 8.5 / 10 Reviewed by: PedroReynaldo (San Mateo, CA)
Driving up Central Expressway any time between the hours of 9 in the morning and 6 at night, I just naturally have to pull off to visit los Charros. Walking thru the parking lot, oh lord, there it is as always, that wretchedly loathsome outhouse of a toilet. Several years ago I even quit going to los Charros after my first shocked encounter with that thing. But then, who would eat anything, anywhere if we knew the whole story. The burritos are always just so good I buy anyway. :( I guess this doesn't show me in a good light. Where's my integrity.
Thru the years I've tried about every burrito there. This last time a chile verde super. Good gracious, outstanding as usual. Slightly smaller than its San Mateo cousins? But, a great blend of tasty ingredients, perfectly assembled. Generous quantity of good lean pork. A must try if you're within five miles. Good, fresh chips, too. Also two cups of great salsas tossed in my plastic para llevar sack. Finally a little row /quarrel at home with my petite wife who this time refused to be conned out of the last bites of hers. (Whether she lets me bat clean up on her burrito is kind of a yes / no whether a burrito is simply outstanding.)
It is indeed an excellent burrito and the many I've bought there over the years have been as good. However, only yesterday I had two chile verdes from tres Amigos in San Mateo and in my opinion they are as good. That's a compliment; the tres Amigos are excellent too. The stores aren't identical. tres Amigos has a very good self-serve salsa bar, but the chips aren't as good. The los Charros store has an edge on autentico rustic ambience and lounging characters, but... that dreadful toilet! I know, you'll say one would never eat sausage either if they saw where they were made. And, los Charros looks to have a perfectly sanitary kitchen. Again, worth the visit. Definitely one of the best burritos on the peninsula.
Score: 8.5 / 10 Reviewed by: tulrich
I'm just back from my first ever visit to Taqueria Los Charros. Thanks to burritophile for turning me on to it -- it was a great meal!
I ordered the Super Carnitas with the standard options. Rookie mistake -- I should have had them hold the sour cream, and possibly the guac. The burrito was delicious, featuring moist/crunchy carnitas, red beans, rice, cheese, guac & sour cream on a very fresh tortilla, well integrated and wrapped in foil. There was no hot sauce in the burrito itself, though they had the ketchup squeezers with some smoky red/orange hot sauce, and the yummy pico de gallo and picante that came with the chips.
Honestly though, this burrito did not rival my favorites from Boston. The carnitas was good, but slightly greasy and not as flavorfully transcendent as at Anna's. There was too much sour cream (but I will take the blame for that). And I had a hard time achieving the perfect spiciness ratio with the tools at hand.
On the plus side, the service was very friendly and fast, the chips were free with very good homemade salsa, and they squeezed me a fresh glass of OJ for $2.50. You can't get that at Anna's!
I plan to return, and when I do, I will fine tune my ordering, and expect a burrito worthy of a 9, assuming the same good-but-not-great carnitas. [scored an 8 for this visit]
[later]
I did return, I did have them hold the sour cream, I did get fresh squeezed juice, and the burrito was a 9. [That brings the average up to 8.5.] The carnitas didn't seem greasy at all this time, either. But I wish I knew where they put that ketchup squeezer of hot sauce. I spooned on the handmade salsa for the chips and it was good but not quite what I need.
Los Charros is my top Mountain View pick so far.
Score: 8 / 10 Reviewed by: M_R
I recently ate at Los Charros in my quest to find a replacement burrito for the king Burrito Real. They have awesome chips, great salsa... but im here to judge the burrito. I ordered the Super Carnitas burrito for around 5-6 bucks. Its not customizable so you get a few things you might not normally put in your custom burrito. I came in with high expectations, I wont lie... but it just did'nt have that certain... Je ne sais quoi. Overall good decent sized burrito.
Score: 9.5 / 10 Reviewed by: just_vball
This is my burrito of choice when I am in (or even near) Mountain View. Super burrito with carne asada is the usual. Chorizo is also good, but can be a little greasy (half carne half chorizo is a nice balance). It's been awhile since I've had the chicken or carnitas, but I remember them being decent.
It's a little heavy for lunch, but getting it wet is really tasty.
Score: 9.5 / 10 Reviewed by: Noel
I've been to this place twice with my friend Marvin. It's a small place that's always busy. Even at these times, our food is promptly served and good. I've tried the Fajitas and the chicken plate. Both awesome and I would recommend. The service is friendly. We've sat at the 'bar' which is in the front, next to the kitchen area. It's cool to see how they make the food. Aside from the food, the bathroom is weirdly located. You have to exit through the back door and then on the right there's a door, which is the back of the kitchen. You freak out because you see the guys making the food but it's until you walk in and close the door that you see the bathroom is actually located somewhat behind the door. Okay, back to the food. The complementary chips and salsa is sweet. The salsa is nice and spicy. Next time I will try the burrito for sure.
Score: 10 / 10 Reviewed by: treed
Los Charros turns out an extremely good burrito. The place is cool, and the table service is a nice touch (but newbies should beware, as you have to go to the counter to pay, and they never even bring you your bill).
I ordered a carne asada super burrito without sour cream. It came to me quickly (before I'd finished my chips), wrapped in foil, on a plate, and quite hot. The tortilla was a perfect consistency. The ingredients were integrated superbly and cooked to absolute perfection. The only tiny minor quibble I have is that it wasn't quite spicy enough (I do tend to like my food very hot). Had this not been the case, the score would likely have been a 10. Still, it was extremely difficult to fault this burrito.
Chips and two kinds of salsa are served automatically. Horchata is cold and has lots of cinnamon.
EDIT: I stopped in again today and ordered a super al pastor. The flavours exploded, and it was good enough to bump the score up to a 10!
Score: 9 / 10 Reviewed by: yoshihama
So based on the high rating on Burritophile, I had to try this place out. Being right off of Castro, parking can be a little challenging at lunch time, but even so once we got there we were seated immediately.
I ordered a super burrito with carne asada and no sour cream. The burrito came served in a basket and wrapped in foil. The ingredients were very well mixed, and I was surprised by the amount of flavor and spice in the asada. Even without the sour cream, the internals didn't seem dry, but on the contrary were quite juicy. Also, the tortilla was slightly grilled giving it an additional structural firmness to stand up to the juicy nature of the ingredients.
TLC has a good rating and rightly so. The burritos are excellent and I can highly recommend them. The only downside I found was in service, since the waiter never came back around to refill our drinks.
Score: 8 / 10 Reviewed by: robertb (San Jose, CA)
If you eat here, try to get a seat at the counter behind the stove. You'll be amazed. I have never seen a burrito made so fast. And they always get the order right. Wow.
On to the review.
I ordered a vegetarian burrito w/o cheese nor sour cream. It seems to be completely up to chance whether they plunk the burrito onto a plate naked or wrap it in foil. The burrito had whole pinto beans (darn -- no refried beans), guacamole, rice, salsa fresca, and lettuce -- well integrated. It comes with chips and both salsa fresca and salsa rancho. The salsas are quite good and I seemed to use 'em up by the time I'm done.
I'd give this place a 9 if they had had refried beans. Oh, well.
Score: 7 / 10 Reviewed by: Travelnjones
I used to work in the building across the street so i ate here a fair ammount. Personally i was never wowed? The meat always seems to get a couple of overly burned bits that always bugged me. Otherwise Its a good place clean place. I know people who go back since we moved and will drive 1/2 an hour for TLC.
Everyonce in a while you can see the guys who own the place doing rope tricks in the parking lot at night after closing.
Score: 9 / 10 Reviewed by: jstevens60
The editors of this website have conferred Official Praise upon Los Charros, and who am I to disagree? My super pollo asado was excellent. It was a little smaller than a typical super at other places I've been to, which is to say that it was still plenty big and filling. Also there were a couple of inedible gristly pieces of chicken, but that just proves they're human. Our group ate in, and everyone cleaned their plates. I like that they have fresh carrot and orange juice. The service was excellent and we will be back. I give Los Charros an 8.5 which rounds up to 9.
Score: 10 / 10 Reviewed by: Louburritos (Mountain View, CA)
Taqueria Los Charros is the standard all other burritos should be measured by. The burrito is perfectly rolled and is tightly wrapped in foil allowing the burrito to be easily consumed without any danger of falling apart. My personal favorite is the Carne Asada burrito with all the fixens sans lettuce. Each mouthful contains little explosions of flavor that last until the last bite. Their Pico de gallo salsa is a perfect compliment to the utopian burrito. The restaurant is well maintained and clean if you prefer to eat in and it usually only takes about 5 minutes to get one to go even if they are busy. Everything in the burrito is very well integrated so each mouthful contains a true burrito taste. None of this garbage where you have to take a bite of one side to get the guac/cheese/beans etc.. and another bite of the other side to get the meat.
I have tried many burrito places all over the Bay Area and this is by far my favorite. I still remember my first burrito like it was only yesterday and the joy it brought me to taste a truly legendary burrito. Do yourself a favor and taste happiness in a tortilla.
Score: 7 / 10 Reviewed by: dklein
I eat here often due to its proximity to my work. I almost always order the "Vegetarian" Burrito. It's not bad and well worth the price ($4), but it is certainly not special in the spectrum of veggie burritos I've had in the area. Essentially, it's a bean burrito with sour cream and guac and diced jalepenos. I prefer veggie burritos that include roasted or grilled vegetebles and are spicier. The staff is friendly and the other burritos are probably better.
Score: 8 / 10 Reviewed by: Marko
Our office got lunch here after seeing so many positive reviews. Our favorite is La Bamba, so we were extremely critical of the burritos. The burritos were good. The carne asada and carnitas meat were tasty. The chicken tacos weren't rated too highly. We decided that the burritos were comparable to La Bamba, perhaps they would grow on us, but given that we are a block from La Bamba and 2 miles from Los Charros, we still like La Bamba better. I would rate the burrito a 8.9, but I'm going to give it an 8 for strategic voting purposes.
Score: 7 / 10 Reviewed by: foamyg
On the advice of everyone here, I went to Los Charros last night.
Honestly, the burrito was decent, but in no way should be ranked at #1 on this list. I ate a Carne Asada Jumbo Burrito, the basic in my eyes from which to compare places.
First of all, I like my guac to be thick and chunky with extras like onions, tomatoes, and some chunks of yet uncrushed avacado. This place gave me paste. It wasn't tasteless, mind you, but not what I was hoping for. Size was another thing I noticed. This is their largest burrito, but it in no way was too much for me. I'm not a big guy, mind you, nor do I have a bottomless stomach. Just a lust for that type of burrito that you can stop eating because it's soooooo good.
I didn't get that here.
Now, pluses. The service was very good. They worked their butts off, and were very friendly. The meal was tasty... it isn't a place I'd never go back to by any means. I did enjoy the burrito, it was reasonably well stuffed with meat (didn't over do the rice or the beans to rip me off), the prices were good (think mine was about $5).
Overall I think this place is worth going to, but not if you have to go out of your way.
Showing 5-24 of 24 ‹ Older
